Tim (his parents hadn't even had the decency to give him an interesting name!) was the class geek. Well, one of them, anyway. He didn't even stand out as far as geeks went. Clothes a few styles out of date (his mom felt that, since she was still paying for them, he would wear the clothes she though were most cost effective), a science fiction and fantasy habit. If he had friends, he would have had a role playing game habit; however, he was a loner. Lately he'd taken to wearing black as often as he could, with some vague idea of fitting in with the goth or emo crowd... but, as a result, his mom had picked up some more brightly colored clothes so he wouldn't "look so gloomy."
None of these thoughts had anything to do with Fifth Period English, of course. Today Fifth Period English was about William Shakespeare's "Julius Cesare". Which Time had already read-- once on his own, and once when his mom's theater group was putting on the play two or three years ago and she had dragged him along to watch. If she had been hoping he would develop an interest in actually going up on the stage, she had been sadly disappointed! Speaking in front of a crowd?! His orthodontist appointments were preferable!
Idly flipping through the text, and wondering what the odds were of his teacher discovering if he wrote an X-Rated version of the classic play and posted it on the Internet, Tim paused as he realized that someone had marked a page in the book other than himself.
Perplexed, he opened the folded piece of paper and began to read:
"Tim--
Your wish for something more interesting is about to come true. Imagine that you can change something about your life. Anything, no matter how large or small, can be changed. It can have something to do with your body, or people you know, or the world around you. What's more, you will be the only one who is not oblivious to the change. The world and everyone in it will exist as if what's been changed has always been that way.
Write your wish below, sit back and enjoy. Feel free to make as detailed a wish as you want. If you aren't satisfied with your wish, you may rip up this paper to undo the change and return your life to the way it was before. You are granted only this one wish, so wish carefully."
Just then a shadow fell across the page.
"Timothy, of all the people, I expected better of you," droned the voice of Ms. Swenson, the middle aged battleship of a women. "Please stand up and share your writing with the class."
Terrified, and with a voice that seemed to be retreating to the other side of puberty, Tim should up and read the note aloud to the class. As he did so, he felt a weird sort of energy flow through him and out to the classroom in general. Unconsciously, the entire class wrote down, word for word, the note in their notebook (except for one of the jocks in the back row, who had learned how to sleep with his eyes open, for just such a class). Also unconsciously, they substituted their own name for the one on top.
"Thank you, Timothy," Ms. Swenson said, rather robotically. "That was a good speech. You may sit down now."
Shaking, the young geek sat down, feeling rather confused at his teacher's reaction and the LACK of reaction from the classroom. Looking at the note, he almost missed his teacher's next word.
"Class, I want you to spend the rest of the hour working on a wish as described by Timothy. The results of your wish will be your grade."
The aging teacher then sat down at her desk and began writing.
Tim looked at the mystery page, and wondered: Did he really have a wish?